6.12.2019

Battery life was good and this charged very quickly.Surprisingly easy to use and navigate the menus once you've worked out what the buttons do. Becomes intuitive fairly quickly, especially given I've not had a smart watch before. Thought it would be complicated or clunky but was pleasantly surprised how user friendly it is!The watch face is easy to read and the watch is comfortable to wear - I have slim wrists and the 45s is ideal in terms of the face diameter and the length of the strap - which is quite soft and flexible, not hard plastic.Very customisable menus - you can choose which 'widgets' are displayed and in what order.

22.5.2019

Bought to replace a Vivosmart HR+ - is a definite and seemingly worthwhile upgrade. Updated to software version 2.50 easily enough using Garmin Express on Windows. Watch seems to track well, battery life seems good so far and the interface/button navigation quickly becomes second nature. GPS is definitely more accurate than my older HR+. Watch itself is smaller than I'm used to (normally wear G-Shocks and a 46mm Galaxy Watch) but sits comfortably enough on my average sized wrist (see first image).Few odd observations that will hopefully be fixed in future software releases:- Syncing to Strava has resulted in the elevation value being significantly over estimated (seems okay in Garmin Connect).

24.8.2019

I bought this watch 2 weeks ago. (The small version) I had Garmin watches before so I was sure about the brand. I am an amateur runner. I like to know basic data about my training. I had a fantastic watch before this one. The Forerunner 235. The only reason I changed it, because it's size. I'm a woman. 235 is for large wrist, and it's "heavy". You can definitely tell when you have it on. You can't forget it. During the night is uncomfortable. Dress up while it's on is complicated. It's catching your clothing, its stuck in them. I'm a shop assistant. When I'm filling the shelves this watch is sucks, I mean it's stuck in everywhere. I was looking for a watch with same specification but smaller in size.

12.7.2019

I upgraded from a Garmin 405CX which has given six years faultless service, but is too chunky to wear for everyday use. I've owned the new Forerunner 45 watch for about a month now and it's been great so far.When I first set it up I didn't think the GPS locked on very quickly, but if you go into the menus you can set it up so it uses two GPS services to get it's position, which is much quicker.The green LED heart rate monitor works well, showing more or less the same pulse rate as an Omron blood pressure monitor.I personally like the fact that it's possible to turn off the watch having to communicate with a phone at all. But, it can show notifications from your phone if you want it to.The watch also tells you what your VO2 max was for each run.

12.3.2020

I have gone down from a Forerunner 235 to the Forerunner 45. I have tiny wrists and most watches are just too huge and bulky. The bigger watches also make pulling my sleeve up and down really difficult and they are too in the way for my everyday use. I like to wear my watch all day everyday - even washing up and gardening and this Forerunner 45 is perfect as it’s compact. It also has a lot of features and does everything that I need. I’m an active running club runner doing 5 to 10k races but I don’t need a watch that is overly technical - Heart rate, GPS, workouts, steps, distance, maps and lots more and syncing with my iPhone and the Garmin app is perfect and some other handy features like assistance (a text message to a nominated contact with location details)

12.3.2020

I have gone down from a Forerunner 235 to the Forerunner 45. I have tiny wrists and most watches are just too huge and bulky. The bigger watches also make pulling my sleeve up and down really difficult and they are too in the way for my everyday use. I like to wear my watch all day everyday - even washing up and gardening and this Forerunner 45 is perfect as it’s compact. It also has a lot of features and does everything that I need. I’m an active running club runner doing 5 to 10k races but I don’t need a watch that is overly technical - Heart rate, GPS, workouts, steps, distance, maps and lots more and syncing with my iPhone and the Garmin app is perfect and some other handy features like assistance (a text message to a nominated contact with location details)

27.10.2019

I read a lot of reviews before purchasing this watch.It is excellent. I find the buttons much better to use the my husband's Garmin that is waterproof.There was a glitch with software that meant it wouldn't sync with the music for a while but that resolved with an update.It has seen me though my training and doing the great North run.I like the ease that you can start a "run activity" which is great at start of a park run when you have not paid as much attention- 3 clicks of a button. There is sometime a delay for waiting for GPS so I usually prime it to find GPS then one click to start your run.I can easily see the display and see your pace and it seems accurate.I am just a fun runner so didn't need all the fancier things that came with the more expensive versions.

5.1.2020

Been through a few HR&GPS Watches and so for - after a little under a month - this one is the best so far. Quite familiar with the companion app which captures plenty of useful data. The watch itself takes a little getting used to, but this might just be the transfer from one brand to the next. The widgets available are great, the customisation options are also good. The HR monitor seems to be accurate - standard for Garmin. The activity tracker and GPS tracking during activity is yet to be tested (injury) but given this is a Garmin product I would presume the GPS at least is as accurate as a GPS watch could get.Watch strap 'feels'

27.9.2020

I have just taken up running and this watch gives a wealth of information and insights as to what is going on throughout the day as well as running/swimming/walking/biking etc. when connected and downloaded to your smartphone. The watch itself is very sleek looking and the case about 7mm thick. The strap is soft and comfortable and providing you don't have it too tight is comfortable and not noticed if you wear it in bed to record sleep data. Scrolling through the menus to set it up can be a little confusing and might take patience because there is so much you can select if you want it, so look at the manual online . Lots of different watch faces available through the downloadable Connect IQ app too.

16.7.2020

I really like the design of this Garmin watch and the e-ink screen. Looks solid and minimalistic.The app and web dashboard are so much better than what Fitbit and Samsung offer.Excellent battery life.Reasonably priced.Areas of improvement are:- Sleep tracking. It has improved in the past year but the Fitbit I had two years ago was more accurate so Garmin is a little behind on that.- Changing straps is a bit of a pain on this model. For some reason those little screws are difficult to put back in so consider that if you intend to change straps frequently.- Decent watch faces are actually very few and you can't customise the default one. I think Garmin should offer more options on that.- Doesn't recognise resistance training.

8.1.2020

I bought the Forerunner 45 to update my FR 225. It’s compact light and the screen is easy to read even when running. It took me a short while to adjust to the functions of the FR 45 after the 225 as they are different. In particular I found it difficult to do a time alert after 1 km rather than a distance alert but eventually I worked it out. The Garmin helpline just sent me a link to the manual which wasn’t really helpful. In all other respects the 45 is a great piece of kit and reasonably priced especially on Black Friday! The distance is very accurate and the HRM is much better than on the 225. My only other issue is there is no percentage meter on the battery life and the graphic is very small so I tend to recharge it probably more than I need to.

2.6.2019

Love this watch! I bought it as it’s geared towards running, although it can be used for lots of other activities. Very easy to use. Love that it has buttons and not touch screen as that can be hard to use when wet or sweaty. I’m female and found that colour choices/sizes to be quite gender specific. I didn’t want a white or purple, and was worried about ordering the black as it was advertised as large/mens(not specifically but that was how I interpreted it) I ordered the black anyway and it’s definitely not too big, the strap is quite long but it could easily be cut if you wanted it shorter. There’s some really good review videos on YouTube that I watched before ordering.

4.4.2020

For its price it delivers decent amount of features enough for advanced amateur runner. The most important to me were:* large digits* bright backlight with hand gesture activation* Garmin Connect synchronization (great app!)Extra features I found useful but was not relying on them initially:* phone notifications* find my phone (within the range of BT connection, obviously)* fully customizable data screens (data you see during an activity)Cons so far:* had 2-3 software updates which resets most of the settings to defaults (e.g. units default to miles, time to 12h format)* one of the GPS software updates broke the fix acquisition, took 2-3 minutes (normally 10-20 seconds)

13.7.2020

I love this watch. I use it for running and it’s great for that. Would have liked it to do aerobics and it has no downloadable apps in Garmin IQ other than watch faces. That was a disappointment because When I looked up about swimming and Garmin forerunner the web said it didn’t track but there was good swim app. Not for this forerunner so beware.A shame when it is fully waterproof. I’m not sure why it doesn’t. It’s gps is excellent and it’s pretty intuitive to use.Unfortunately mine started to drain battery power really quickly and it had been amazing before that. Amazon customer support was outstanding though and I have my replacement no hassle.

9.6.2020

If you are looking an affordable watch to track sports and daily activity, you found it! you can track running, cycling or cardio training. It tracks your heart rate on 24/7 basis, if you download the app, you get access to different workouts, that can be personalized to an extent. It's easy to use and quite intuitive when it comes to buttons. The app gives you nice visuals measuring any metrics from heart rate, steps, sleep, hydration, calories. The bracelet is really soft and the watch, even if I got an M, does not look too big on a female wrist.Reviewing the opinion after a couple of months of using the watch, I am disappointed with the watch constantly losing connectivity with the app,

Garmin Forerunner 45 - Reviews

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